A row between councillors in Middlesbrough rumbles on in this week’s Teesside Lead, as we speak exclusively to the Reform councillor who isn’t actually a Reform councillor.
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A row between Middlesbrough councillors intensifies, as the leader of the opposition Speaks to The Teesside Lead and accuses a Labour councillor of hypocrisy.
Cllr Mick Saunders leads the opposition group on Middlesbrough Council, the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA), having first been elected as an independent in Park End and Beckfield in 2015. However, despite recently listing membership of Reform UK in his register of interests, he continues to sit on the council as an independent councillor.
There are no rules in either Middlesbrough Council or Reform UK’s constitutions which prohibit a member of the party from sitting as an independent, or as a member of another group.
Earlier this month, Labour councillor Tom Mohan accused Saunders, and his fellow Park End and Beckfield councillor Stephen Hill of not “being straight with the public” for being members of Reform but sitting as independents.
MICA has eight councillors, and is the largest grouping outside of Labour on Middlesbrough Council. As leader of the grouping, Cllr Saunders is entitled to an additional allowance of £2,700. Reform UK has two councillors, led by Nunthorpe councillor Joanne Rush.
Cllr Mohan has demanded Saunders stand down as leader of the group, and “forfeit” the allowance.
He added: “The people of Middlesbrough deserve to know who really runs Reform in Middlesbrough - is it their apparent leader Cllr Rush or Cllr Saunders, the so-called independent.”
Now, in comments to The Teesside Lead, Cllr Saunders has accused Cllr Mohan of “hypocrisy”, saying, “he would not have reacted the same if I became a member of the Labour Party”.